Note 229 — PART III. MAGNA CARTA: ITS FORM AND CONTENTS.

Extravagant estimates of its value will readily occur to anyone acquainted with the literature of the subject. For example, Sir James Mackintosh (History of England, I. 218, edn. of 1853) declares that we are “bound to speak with reverential gratitude of the authors of the Great Charter. To have produced it, to have preserved it, to have matured it, constitute the immortal claim of England upon the esteem of mankind. Her Bacons and Shakespeares, her Miltons and Newtons, etc., etc.” Such uncritical eulogy contributes nothing to the understanding of Magna Carta.